DEHP Review of GBR discharge policy, water quality objectives and offsets mechanism
Date: 29-Jun-2017
The DEHP - QLD Office of the Great Barrier Reef recently released the discussion paper: Enhancing regulations to ensure clean water for a healthy Great Barrier Reef and a prosperous Queensland (PDF, 7.55MB) which applies to agricultural and urban areas in Great Barrier Reef (GBR) catchments and specifically targets nutrient and sediment load reduction. Regulatory impact assessment processes will occur during 2017 with ‘enhanced regulations’ due in 2018. This will include end-of-catchment load limits and a review of existing discharge licences for industrial and urban sources. More information is available at the DEHP website and a webinar describing the approach was held by EHP in mid-March and summarises the regulatory proposals being considered, how they may apply to new urban and industrial high-risk activities and timing and the proposed process. Some urban sewerage service providers attended the online event and asked questions relevant to the sector. The webinar can be accessed by contacting the OfficeoftheGBR@ehp.qld.gov.au.
Comments on the draft paper are due back to the Department on the 7th April. qldwater will be providing a collated industry response and you can contribute to this by contacting Rob Fearon (rfearon@qldwater.com.au) by the 5th April.
This review will overlap to a large extent with two other reviews currently underway by the Department. The first is the review of water quality objectives for a number of catchments including some draining to the GBR. Closing date for submissions on this review is the 31 May 2017. Second, the Department is undertaking a review of their ‘nutrient offsets mechanism’ a policy that features strongly in the GBR discussion paper but which will require some modification to be practical for regional Queensland. qldwater provided an initial submission at the request of the Department, see http://www.qldwater.com.au/ReviewDocuments and will be collating an industry response when the new draft version of the offsets policy is released.
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